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The Justice and Development Party (AKP) were elected to power in 2002 and since then Turkish politics has undergone considerable change. This book is a comprehensive analysis of the AKP, in terms not just of its ideological agenda, but also of its social basis and performance in office in the main theatres of public policy – political reform, and cultural, economic and foreign policies.

Based on an extensive analysis of official and party documents, interviews, academic sources and media coverage, the book outlines the main features of the current global debate on the relationship between Islam, Islamism and democracy. While most top AKP leaders come from an Islamist background, the party has behaved as a moderate, centre-right, conservative democratic party who are fully committed to democracy, a free market economy and Turkey’s EU membership. The book explores and analyses these changes in Turkish politics, and provides coverage of the workings of the contemporary Turkish political systems, policy and ideological issues that go to the heart of Turkish identity.

Filling a gap in the existing Turkish and English literature on the subject, this book will be an important contribution to Political Science, particularly the areas of Turkish politics, Middle Eastern studies, Islamic studies and comparative politics.

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The Politics of Modern Turkey is a new four-volume Major Work from Routledge. The first volume of the collection (‘Historical Heritage of Politics in Modern Turkey’) brings together key research to provide a historical contextualization of modern Turkish political experience. This volume traces the sizeable literature that uses historical sociology as its basis to underline the continuities and breakdowns in key political areas of the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the modern Republican era, especially with reference to cultural, institutional, and elite politics perspectives covering the Ottoman and the single-party period (1923–50). The Tanzimat reforms as they relate to the Republican regime’s ground-breaking changes of the early 1930s are emphasized, as is the process of transition to a multi-party democracy after the Second World War. The volume also gathers a number of essays on the nature of ideological currents influential in contemporary Turkish politics, taking in Kemalist, Islamist conservative, and nationalist orientations, as well as Turkish versions of liberalism.

The second volume of the collection (‘Political Institutions and Processes’) presents the best research which depicts and evaluates constitutional changes, ending with recent amendments aimed at fulfilling the Copenhagen political criteria for EU membership. Volume II also includes vital material highlighting the character and functioning of the executive branch, the bureaucracy, and parliament. Seminal essays describing and analysing the 1960 and 1980 coups and the 1971 coup-by-memorandum, as well as the so-called ‘postmodern’ coup of 1997. Other topics covered include: the nature of public policymaking and the operation of patronage networks; the party system and electoral laws; social mobilization and trends in political participation; interest and pressure-group activity; and the political role of the military.

The material gathered in Volume III (‘Modern Turkey’s Foreign Policy’) addresses the historical development of foreign policymaking institutions, and the policymaking system. A historical section explores foreign policy under Kemal Atatürk and Ismet Inönü, through to the Cold War and post-Cold War periods. Regionally, the following areas are covered: Turkey’s broad geo-strategic situation; Turkish–American relations; Turkey and the European Union; Turkey’s relations with the Middle Eastern countries; Greek–Turkish relations and the Cyprus problem; and Turkey’s relations with the Soviet Union, the post-Soviet republics in Transcaucasia and central Asia, and Russia.

The final volume of the collection (‘Major Issues and Themes in Contemporary Turkish Politics’) is focused on a number of issues that have gained increasing salience over the last two decades. Topics include: democratization, and the politics of the EU membership process; identity issues, especially religiosity and the rising salience of pro-Islamist movements; ethnicity and the politics of the Kurdish minority; women in Turkish politics; political–economic interactions; and political performance and governance.

With an introduction newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, The Politics of Modern Turkey is an essential collection destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.

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Doing Business And Investing in Turkey (World Business, Investment and Government Library) ... Read more

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Turkey Foreign Policy And Government Guide ... Read more

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Turkey Government and Business Contacts Handbook (World Investment and Business Library) ... Read more

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In 2002 the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) swept to power in Turkey. Since then it has shied away from a hard-line ideological stance in favour of a more conservative and democratic approach. M. Hakan Yavuz negotiates this ambivalence asking whether it is possible for a political party with a deeply religious ideology to liberalise and entertain democracy or whether, as he contends, radical religious groups moderate their practices and ideologies when forced to negotiate a competitive and rule-based political system.The author explores the thesis through an analysis of the rise and evolution of the AKP and its more recent 2007 election victory. The book, which tackles a number of important issues including political participation, economics and internal security, provides a masterful survey of modern Turkish and Islamic politics, which will be of interest to a broad range of readers from students to professionals and policymakers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Comprehensive and Insightful.
Despite the emotions its subject matter raises in Turkey, its Turkish author remains fair and objective towards all sides, or perhaps I should say equally critical of all sides.His judgments are acute, and his coverage comprehensive.An illuminating read. ... Read more

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Turkey has always been a crossroads: the point where East meets West, Europe meets Asia, and Christianity meets Islam. Turkey has also been a close and important American ally, but a series of converging political and strategic factors have now endangered its longstanding Western and democratic orientation. In "Winning Turkey", two leading analysts explain this worrisome situation and present a plan for improving it. The stakes are clear. Turkey is the most advanced democracy in the Islamic world, bordering a number of the world's hotspots, including Iraq, Iran, and the Caucasus. It occupies the corridor between Western markets and Caspian Sea energy reserves.A stable, Western-oriented Turkey moving toward EU membership would provide a growing market for exports, a source of needed labor, a positive influence on the Middle East, and an ally in the war on terror. The picture has darkened, however, as rising anti-Americanism, deflated hopes for EU accession, civil-military tensions, and terrorist threats have destabilized an already volatile Turkish political system. "Winning Turkey" designs a plan to ease tensions in this critical part of the world.In addition to proposing a 'grand bargain' between Turkey and the Kurds, it advocates greater support for increased liberalism and democracy, a renewed commitment by both Europe and Turkey to promote EU membership, a historic compromise with Armenia, and greater Western engagement with Turkish Cypriots. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (98)

Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds
Excellent account of the political history and culture of Turkey and the limited option to achieve democracy.

Streamlined but lacking depth
This is a relatively light read written by Stephen Kinzer, a New York Times journalist who has covered events taking place in the Republic of Turkey for several years now. It is not quite a history book but rather a general evaluation of a country which, to all observers, is poised to assume a prominent, and perhaps even decisive, role in world affairs.

The book is written from a very personal perspective. Each chapter opens up with an episode taken from Kinzer's time in Turkey and consequently deals with a subject that is relevant in Turkish politics or society. The first chapters serve as introduction to the reader, acquainting him with the establishment of the republic in 1923 (when it succeeded the Ottoman Empire) and the earth-shattering reforms that were carried out by its first leader, whose reputation holds near mythic status in Turkey, Mustafa Kemal. The succeeding chapters present a variety of topics and problems which Turkey faces today, from its inability to give equal rights to its minorities to its knee-jerk reaction to silencing its citizens who dare question the wisdom of the state. Kinzer spends much of his time, however, discussing Turkey's future. A great deal of space is reserved for talking about its potential to not only form a bridge to unite two seemingly distant cultures, (the East and West), but to assume and play an active and influential role in world politics.

These are all very important subjects to cover and understand but the space that Kinzer has allotted them (about 250 pages) is quite insignificant and because of this shortcoming, much of his analysis just barely scratches the surface. Certain reviewers have complained that Kinzer is too judgmental when discussing topics such as democracy or the role of the military in politics but most of his arguments and advice are spot on without sounding having too much of the air of a preacher. He clearly has too much love for a country and its people to not appear to sound too condescending.

Additionally, I had to take away one star for his highly disappointing chapter concerning the Armenian Genocide, or as Kinzer euphemistically puts it, the Armenian tragedy. In what is becoming far too symptomatic of foreigners who write on Turkey, the Armenian Genocide is almost always written off as an unfortunate "event" which befell the Armenians and the Turks during a chaotic time of war and turmoil. In what is an excruciatingly difficult, inconsistent and incoherent chapter to read, Kinzer speaks about the Armenian Genocide without fully acknowledging the extent of its reality. While he makes certain interesting points, he dances around the topic, making irrelevant and wildly inaccurate comments about the Armenian Diaspora and the Republic of Armenia. Even when he interviews several Kurds who openly admit that their grandparents were responsible for killing Armenians under direct orders of the state, he is still unable to bring himself to use the word genocide. This is not the first time that Kinzer has written about the genocide, as he has published several articles in the NYT with far greater insults than the ones found in the book. In this respect and as a journalist, Kinzer is no Robert Fisk and it is obvious that he feels very uncomfortable or is at least very reluctant to just speak the plain truth or criticize a country that has played host to him for such a long time.

Turkey's current Prime Minister Recep Erdogan clearly comes out as the hero in Kinzer's story. He is presented as a progressive individual, with moderate Muslim leanings, who has a much more optimistic outlook on Turkey's relation to the rest of the world than his predecessors. Erdogan wishes to bring his nation into the European mold, even if the Europeans themselves have stiffened up over Turkey's desire to join the European Union. Kinzer remains optimistic for Turkey's future and one can get a fair idea of what Turks are thinking and doing by reading his book. Pity it wasn't a little bit longer.

Excellent background book to modern Turkey with some reservations (see review)
Before saying anything else, you should know that this is an excellent book: five stars.It's not a typical politics book, but more of an ex-New York Times Istanbul Bureau Chief's personal quest to come to terms with modern day Turkey.There are about ten chapters with short "meze" observations in between each chapter.("meze" is the Turkish term for "appetizer")Each chapter covers a topic, such as the Kurdish problem, the military, religion, Armenians, the foundation of modern Turkey, etc.

Unfortunately, and I have a hard time saying this because I don't want to give the impression that the book is anything but excellent, but from the very beginning I suspected that Kinzer's book was overly biased in favor of the current Erdogan administration, perhaps because of the author's love of the Turkish people and country, perhaps because of his subconscious desire to maintain journalistic access to Turkish leaders.I frequently found myself wondering what he was not telling the reader.Kinzer clearly makes the case that Erdogan has been good for Turkey, but many have also had serious reservations.

The book is extremely engaging and well written.The author's own observations based on interviewing and following the key figures in Turkish politics are on target, spot-on.I started reading this book while on vacation in Turkey and frequently found the book explaining to the core things I had observed.

Only in the very last chapter did Kinzer addresses the concerning Islamic leanings of the Erdogan administration.These concerns are now more important in light of the Gaza flotilla and Erdogan's repudiation of the Israeli Prime Minister at a big international meeting.These events happened after Kinzer updated his book (originally written 2001, substantially revised and updated 2008), but were clearly on the minds of everyone involved when the book was written.

Shallow and judgmental
I had this book on my shelf for years and picked it up because I wanted to learn more about this country, especially after it has become more prominent in the news. Kinzer writes well and covers many of the major issues, with chapters divided into themes.

Unfortunately, Kinzer litters the book with judgments, constantly chastising Turkey for not being sufficiently democratic or proclaiming that its future lies with Europe. In retrospect, his optimism sounds naive - he seems never to have considered the possibility, for example, that democracy would lead to an Islamist political party with foreign policy interests that don't coincide with US/European notions of progressivism. This is exactly what has happened recently, with the AK Party government forging closer ties with Iran. This development, and Kinzer's lack of in-depth discussion of popular support for Islamic politics, suggests that Kinzer's knowledge of Turkey came primarily from intellectuals and elites who shared his outlook on life and politics.

More importantly, Kinzer's judgmental tone simply becomes annoying and takes space away from more anecdotes and analysis about Turkey. I found the book to be shallow and judgmental. In some ways, I learned surprisingly little about Turkish history and politics. Besides being energetic, what did Prime Minister Ozel do? How did he survive politically if he challenged so many military elites? I understand Kinzer didn't have space to cover thousands of years of Turkish history in 240 pages. However, he surely could have provided more interesting historical stories about the country rather than dedicating several pages to his desire to swim across the Bosporus Straits.

First class
Kinzer gets it!
He understands the way Turks think, evaluates the current political dilemmas the country finds itself in. (although slightly outdated by now however the book was published in 2008) He comes up with solutions to the problems facing the country and leading it to a delay in its efforts to join the ranks of the modern western civilizations. After reading the book you develop an understanding of why Turkey to this date still can't get ahead and find its potential. Recommended for anyone who has an interest in Turkey's modern history... ... Read more

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This book examines the impact of European political conditionality on the process of democratization in Turkey over a twenty year period. Employing theoretical and conceptual approaches to the issue of EU conditionality, the author compares the case of Turkey to that of other European nations.

Arguing that Turkey became vulnerable to the European conditionality when it applied for membership in 1987, he shows how the political reforms demanded of Turkey were not fully carried out as the EU had not in essence accepted Turkey as an official candidate during this period. The EU has started to exert real ‘active leverage’ since Turkey was declared an official candidate in 1999, and the author explores how these conditions have exerted a positive influence on democratic consolidation in Turkey. However, its effectiveness in this regard has diminished to a significant extent due to a number of problems that have continued to remain central in EU-Turkey relations.

This comprehensive analysis of Turkey-EU political relations and democratization places the case of Turkey within an international context. As such, it will be of interest not only to those studying Turkish politics, government and democracy, but anyone working in the area of international relations and the EU.

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Most theorists of deliberative democracy treat deliberation as a procedure in decision-making. This approach neglects an important phase oriented not so much to decision-making but to social learning and understanding. Combining deliberative theory with research from social psychology, Bora Kanra has developed an innovative critique and synthesis by allocating social learning its own formal sphere. For deliberative democracy to produce better outcomes, decision-making needs to be reinforced by opportunities for social learning. Stressing the importance of the development of democratic dialogue in divided societies, Kanra tests his claims of a new deliberative framework by analyzing interaction between Islamic and secular discourses in the Turkish public sphere. This in-depth analysis of converging and diverging political beliefs and traditions between seculars and Islamists emphasizes the importance of social learning in a sharply divided society. A groundbreaking and illuminating insight into the prospects for democratic development in Turkey, "Islam, Democracy and Dialogue in Turkey" reveals an emerging dynamic in Turkish politics representing a new opening in political practice. ... Read more

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How Happy is the Person Who Says I am a Turk
There is one country in Europe where people feel nostalgic for the 1930s, and where they almost unanimously cherish the memory of a one-party state which multiplied statues of its great leader on every street corner. The country is Turkey and the golden age that Turks remember with nostalgia is the first two decades of the republic founded in 1923 by Mustapha Kemal, the father of all Turks. The climax of this era of bliss and hope occurred with the tenth anniversary celebrations of the declaration of the Turkish Republic, when Atatürk famously declared: "How happy is the person who says I am a Turk!"

Nostalgia is a thoroughly modern sentiment. Or maybe a postmodern one: it is fair to say that modernity ended with the end of hope for tomorrow. Since then, people have looked for their utopias in the past rather than in the future. As Esra Özyürek notes, quoting another author, the twentieth century began with a futuristic utopia and ended with nostalgia. A belief in the future is now only a relic of the past. What people look for in the past is the kind of pride and hope in the future that seems to have disappeared from our present.

By locating their modernity in the past, rather than in the present or future, and by cultivating a vivid memory of the 1930s as a modern past utopia in which the citizens united around their state, many Turks with a nationalist-secular worldview tend to reject the visions, revisions and divisions that characterize the present situation. They are discontent with the new definition of modernity that the European Union imposes on Turkey, becoming resistant to criticisms of the way Turkey has handled the Kurdish issue and human rights violations. They firmly oppose the rise of political Islam and what they perceive as attacks to the foundations of the secular state.

For nostalgic Republicans, the end of the single-party regime and the transition to democracy formed the starting point of selfishness and factionalism in Turkey. They agree that the golden age came to an end with the first fair general elections of 1950, when the Democrat Party replaced the Republican People's Party. Everything apparently got worse afterwards. Suddenly, there was more than one vision for the future of the country, and citizens were divided along the lines of gender, class, ethnicity, and religion. People started putting their private interest above the common good embodied by the state.

Of course, paradise is always and forever lost, and nobody in Turkey really wants to turn back the clock backward to the 1930s. The militaristic and patriarchal feelings associated with the early Republican era no longer match the contemporary ideals of European modernism, which promotes voluntarism, spontaneity, and free will in state-citizen relations. The nationalist march songs with lyrics glorifying the construction of railroad tracks and the devotion to the leader are revisited today with a new aesthetic of postmodern kitsch and disco rhythm. Nostalgia is also used to silence the opposition, as when the remix of nationalist songs blasted by discotheques compete with the calls to prayer of the muezzin.

In Nostalgia for the Modern, Esra Özyürek explores how nostalgia for the single-party era is indicative of a new kind of relationship citizens have established with the founding principles of the Turkish Republic, one that manifests itself in affective, domestic, and otherwise private realms generally considered outside the traditional field of politics. She takes as the sites of her ethnography the seventy-fifth anniversary Republic Day celebrations arranged by civil society organizations; the popular life histories of first-generation Republicans who transformed their lives as a result of the Kemalist reforms; the commercial pictures of Atatürk that privatize and commodify a state icon; the pop music albums that remixed the tenth-anniversary march originally made in 1933; and museum exhibits about the family lives of citizens that articulate metaphors of national intimacy.

Özyürek sees a parallel between the neoliberal policies of market reforms and structural adjustment and what she describes as the privatization of state ideology. Both are characterized by a symbolism of privatization, market choice, and voluntarism that contrasts with the statist, nationalist and authoritarian ideology of Kemalism in the former period. With neo-Kemalism, a secular state ideology, politics, and imaginary finds a new life and legitimacy in the private realms of the market, the home, civil society, life history, and emotional attachment, transforming the intimate sphere along the way.

This shift of secular ideology from the public to the private, which (just like neoliberal economic reforms) involves processes of destatization and restatization, occurred just at the same time as, and in reaction to, the growing importance in the public sphere of religious beliefs and practices that were once confined in the private realm. Secularism went private just when Islam went public, as both had to face the shift produced by market reforms and liberalization. This exploration of cultural imaginaries associated with the neoliberal ideology opens up new possibilities for political anthropology: according to the author, "anthropologists are uniquely equipped to understand the newly hegemonic culture of neoliberalism in the fields of economy, society and politics."

There is also an autobiographical aspect to this ethnography. For Esra Özyürek, fieldwork was intimately linked to family work. As she confesses, "I am the granddaughter of a parliamentarian of the single-party regime and the daughter of two staunch Kemalist and social democrat activists affiliated with the Republican People's Party." Raised as an orthodox Kemalist, her mother is a firm believer in Westernization, secularism, and Turkish nationalism. She doesn't hesitate to chastise her daughter for her sympathy with the cause of veiled university students. Her father is also a stalwart Republican who was elected to Parliament in the course of her research. Analyzing further her motivations for undertaking this project, the author notes that "this study became a tool for me to negotiate daughter-parent relations and establish myself as an adult in some ways." Coming of age as an anthropologist also involves dealing with the father-figure of Atatürk, whose towering presence makes itself felt in every chapters of the book.

Written as a scholarly essay with a rich theoretical apparatus, Nostalgia for the Modern can also be read as a very personal rendition of the author's effort to come to terms with her Turkish identity. ... Read more

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The Mobilization of Political Islam in Turkey explains why political Islam, which has been part of Turkish politics since the 1970s but on the rise only since the 1990s, has now achieved governing power. Drawing on social movement theory, the book focuses on the dominant form of Islamist activism in Turkey by analyzing the increasing electoral strength of four successive Islamist political parties: the Welfare Party; its successor, the Virtue Party; and the successors of the Virtue Party: the Felicity Party and the Justice and Development Party. This book, which is based on extensive primary and secondary sources as well as in-depth interviews, provides the mostcomprehensive analysis currently available of the Islamist political mobilization in Turkey. ... Read more

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An outstanding book on Turkish political Islam
This book is gold. Covering about a century of Ottoman and Turkish history, it explains the rise of political Islam in Turkey, social dynamics behind the AKP and grassroots Anatolian Islamist movements better than anything else I've read.

As with any analysis on Turkey should do, the book begins with the Young Turk - Islamist tensions during the final days of the Ottoman Empire. Then, it goes on to explain how this tension translated into the the Turkish Republican period, secularization of the state and Anatolian Islamist movements 'going underground'. These underground Islamist movements have evolved in the last half century and went through a period of alliances and counter-alliances, which first manifested as the 'Milli Görü' movement of Necmettin Erbakan, and then as the Welfare and Felicity parties.

As a lecturer of Turkish studies at Princeton University, I ask my students to buy this book, as all of its chapters offer new information and insight. ... Read more

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Profoundly affected by the recent changes in geopolitics on its periphery, Turkey has the potential to exercise new foreign policy clout from the Balkans to Central Asia and Western China. These opportunities have also dramatically changed the character of Turkey itself, which is strengthening its free market system and broadening democracy within its borders. This book explores the character of the new Turkey, assessing its foreign policy options and interpreting the significance of these choices for other regions. ... Read more

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What CIA thinks Turkey is...
This is a book written by authors well known as former CIA personnel in Turkey. This rather old book has numerous mistakes as facts and one feels that the authors' best sources are Turkish university professors! ... Read more

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Moderation theory describes the process through which radical political actors develop commitments to electoral competition, political pluralism, human rights, and rule of law and come to prefer negotiation, reconciliation, and electoral politics over provocation, confrontation, and contentious action. Revisiting this theory through an examination of two of the most prominent moderate Islamic political forces in recent history, Muslim Reformers in Iran and Turkey analyzes the gains made and methods implemented by the Reform Front in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Justice and Development Party in Turkey.

Both of these groups represent Muslim reformers who came into continual conflict with unelected adversaries who attempted to block their reformist agendas. Based on extensive field research in both locales, Muslim Reformers in Iran and Turkey argues that behavioral moderation as practiced by these groups may actually inhibit democratic progress. Political scientist GüneMurat Tezcür observes that the ability to implement conciliatory tactics, organize electoral parties, and make political compromises impeded democracy when pursued by the Reform Front and the Justice and Development Party. Challenging conventional wisdom, Tezcür's findings have broad implications for the dynamics of democratic progress.

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Ruling But Not Governing highlights the critical role that the military plays in the stability of the Egyptian, Algerian, and, until recently, Turkish political systems. This in-depth study demonstrates that while the soldiers and materiel of Middle Eastern militaries form the obvious outer perimeter of regime protection, it is actually the less apparent, multilayered institutional legacies of military domination that play the decisive role in regime maintenance.

Steven A. Cook uncovers the complex and nuanced character of the military's interest in maintaining a facade of democracy. He explores how an authoritarian elite hijack seemingly democratic practices such as elections, multiparty politics, and a relatively freer press as part of a strategy to ensure the durability of authoritarian systems.

Using Turkey's recent reforms as a point of departure, the study also explores ways external political actors can improve the likelihood of political change in Egypt and Algeria. Ruling But Not Governing provides valuable insight into the political dynamics that perpetuate authoritarian regimes and offers novel ways to promote democratic change.

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This book examines some of the most pressing issues facing the Turkish political establishment, in particular the issues of political Islam, and Kurdish and Turkish nationalisms. The authors explore the rationales of the main political actors in Turkey in order to increase our understanding of the ongoing debates over the secularist character of the Turkish Republic and over Turkey’s longstanding Kurdish issue.

Original contributions from respected scholars in the field of Turkish and Kurdish studies provide us with many insights into the social and political fabric of Turkey, exploring Turkey’s secularist establishment, the ruling AKP government, the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Institutions of the European Union. While the focus of concern in this book is with the social agents of contemporary politics in Turkey, the convictions they have and the strategies they employ, historical dimensions are also integrated in their analyses. In its approach, the book makes an important contribution to a widening investigation into the making of politics in the contemporary world.

Incorporating the importance of the growing transnational connections between Turkey and Europe, this book is particularly relevant in the light of the ongoing negotiations over Turkey’s membership to the European Union, and will be of interest to scholars interested in Turkish studies, Kurdish studies and Middle Eastern Politics.

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Turkey is a longstanding ally of the United States and Europe. After the demise of the Soviet empire, Turkey's strategic importance has changed but not diminished. Today Turkey is facing a completely different foreign and security policy environment. However, Turkey is also undergoing extraordinary internal change. Many established political truths of the Republic's seventy-five-year-long tradition are increasingly questioned by a growing part of its people. Above all, there is the rise of political Islam and the ensuing clash of ideologies between "secularists" and "Islamists" as well as the debate about Turkey's "Kurdish reality."Turkey's allies will have to respond to this development by adapting their policies. Nothing less than a re-evaluation and, eventually, a re-orientation in relations with both the United States and Europe is required if Turkey is to remain anchored in the West.This book undertakes a comprehensive overview and analysis of Turkey's internal and external changes and provides elements of a new European and American policy toward a key strategic partner. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

West meets East: A hug or a kiss?
Kramer has very expertly reviewed all of the major forces shaping the internal and external politics and policies of modern day Turkey.His detailed knowledge and insight of the dominant cultural, historical, and political forces in action, pulling towards and away from EU, is impressive.

He has seperately analyzed all major Turkish geopolitical theaters starting with EU, Balkans, USA, Russia, Central Asia, Middle East, Greece and Cyprus.His analysis is very sharp, balanced and rich until the last chapter where he was supposed to "offer" a recepie for keeping Turkey in the Western camp.

A number of points need to be made with respect to some his conclusions and views.

Much of his data seem to follow newspaper headlines.One does not feel that his resources were real people.Among all the players he goes through, he fails to mention Turk-Is, or DISK or the student movements even once, which was quite puzzling.These were indirectly responsible for at least two military "interventions" and various government changes.

More cultural autonomy to Kurdish part of the population is presented as a very large hurdle since it is expected that the Turkish establishment would not be able to tolerate the political independence movement that would "naturally" result from this cultural liberation.Question is why would unlimited cultural liberation to a segment or whole of a population should result in a threat against the unitary state?Is there a "Turkish Party" in Germany?Is there a "Mexican Party" in USA?Is there a "Asian Party" in UK?There is no basis for the assumption Kramer makes that "Kurdish" voters would vote differently than any other ethnic group in any other open democracy.

Kramer fails to make a distinction between EU memebership and being part of the Western "camp".Turks are what they are irrespective of some organization here or there "decides" what they are or where they belong.The process of "belonging" is quite out of the control of EU officials and it only looks that way because of the way numerous Turkish beurocrats have been stuck with a stale interperatation of the vision Ataturk developed 80 yrs ago.

While Kramer appropriately points out how the Turkish public at large has been kept out of the EU memebership debate, he shies away from making any statements concerning the real benefits to Turks of an EU membership.

He is correct also in highlighting how Turkey is missing from any EU policies concerning Middle East, Balkans and Near East, and how this complicates post-cold war policies of Turks, he should have mentioned that such EU policies are non-existent altogether.They may need to be formulated soon.

Last chapter was a let down.He simply fills the pages with motherhood statements and fails to make some bold and honest statements.

Wie-und-Was-und-Wer-und-Wo-und-Wann
This book is presumably the culmination of a distinguished career, and the reader is not disappointed by this carefully structured book, whichprovides important insights.In addition, A Changing Turkey contains arich bibilograhy, which is all but comprehensive and one must presumeindependtedly chosen. Let me conttrate on my objections. The book, in fact,is somewhat marred,by some inaccurracies. Five-six examples:

1)Thelifting of Greece's blokage of the MEDA-regulation in 1997 was politicallylinked to the adoption of a (ambigous) EU declaration on the IMIA issue.

2)It is France's desire to see Turkey become of member in the EU, andnot so much the US 's New Security strategy , that determined theHelsinki-summit's declaration to invite Turkey to join in the context ofthe development ofa EDSP and the renegociation of the post-bipolarsecurity architecture in Europe, i.e. in the context of managing change inEurope. Thus, the accession of Turkey ultimately rests on a grand bargainbetween France and Germany.

3) The war in Kosovo, and President Clinton'sseizure of it to place Turkey into EU at the US-EU-summit in Bonn in 1999 -not the US grand strategy - was crucial to this. Deeds, not words and greatplans, are what statesmen historically, has been judged on.

4) TonyBlair may be pro-European and tilting towards the development of a EuropeanDefence and Security Policy. But what is the influence of the White House'saccept of the development of the british position ? And does Whitehall'spreference for Turkish membership of EU differs from that of France'sposition ?

5) It isGermany, France and perhaps the European Commission,which needs to develop grand strategy and. Not Turkey. Ankara has playedits cards wisely. Europe has gone through a decade of omissions inYugoslavia. It then finished off enginering the the diplomatic struggleover Cyprus to move European integration forward. At a price. Just ask themany European peace keepers, who did their stint in the Balkans at theservice of the Not Available Too Often (NATO) and in the name of a Europe,which it seems, is destined to be born in war. Indeed, Turkey is the firstcountry to have been bombed into EU.

6) The authour is an expert onTurkey, and has formerly written and published on the subject. But why isit, that he does not address the question of it in this book on whether theEuropean Union today is sufficiently developed in institutional terms totake on Turkey ?

Finally, the integration of Turkey into EU has indeedconsequences for EU's policy vis-a-vis the wider Middle East. But theseramifications are skated over. So is the shape the authour should like thesettlement (resolution ?)on Cyprus to take. On sait maintenantpourqoui.

Theese days are therefore intresting times - wenn man will.

A very balanced analysis
The author presents us with a balanced,no-nonsense analysis of Turkey's both current serious problems and great prospects. I would recommend this book to anyone (including people FROM Turkey) who wants to get a betterunderstanding this country's present situation. ... Read more

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This work is about domestic politics following the Revolution of 1908 in Turkey. It relates events from the opening of the Parliament in late 1908 to the re-capture of constitutional government in early 1913. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fascinating
Very much like the 1908 Revolution from the same author, this book continues to challenge the mainstream Turkish studies in many respects. A real scholarly work that deserves much more attention that it has received so far. ... Read more